The results of Sunday’s legislative elections in Greece have been widely hailed as a vote “for the euro,” with news services painting the elections as a virtual “referendum” on eurozone membership. “For the euro” in the present context means, more precisely, for the austerity measures that the European powers-that-be have made clear are the condition [...]

Lazy, profligate, scheming Greeks versus honest, thrifty, industrious Germans. Southern vice versus northern virtue. For much of the news media, the euro sovereign debt crisis could be summarized in the form of a morality play opposing national or regional stereotypes. But what if the financial strains on the so-called PIGS that threaten the eurozone are [...]

One of the European parliament’s most influential members, the German Christian Democrat Elmar Brok, has declared that Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the credit ratings of nine eurozone member states is part of a “currency war” being waged by the United States against the euro and Europe itself. Brok is a former chair of [...]

Standard & Poor’s warning that no less than fifteen eurozone states, including Germany, could lose their AAA credit rating has been met with howls of protest from many leading German politicians. But it was Rainer Brüderle of the ostensibly pro-free market Free Democratic Party (FDP) who had perhaps the most extreme reaction. See my new [...]

Last month, in a unique “citizen’s challenge” to rescue measures taken by the European Central Bank (ECB), German economics professor Markus C. Kerber filed a complaint against the bank before the Court of Justice of the European Union. Professor Kerber, who teaches economics and law at the Technical University in Berlin, charges that the bank, [...]